Current communication platforms which are used to establish communication between a device disposed at a site and at least one server disposed remotely from the site rely on a separate gateway device to bridge communication between the site and the server. However, in order to establish communication with the server via the gateway, the current communication platforms must also deal with or manage a firewall. This is commonly known in the art as the network address translation (NAT) problem. The gateway devices of the current communication platforms must incorporate a firewall function that provides a single IP address for the site to enable communication between the site and the server. While the NAT approach does provide for a security feature for the site, the assignment of a single IP address to the site can also be problematic when the server desires to communicate directly with a device associated with the site. In other words, the use of a firewall makes it easy for a site to communicate with a server, but makes the reverse communication very difficult. In addition, the current gateway devices only create a temporary connection between the site and the server to maximize security therebetween.
In addition, current communication platforms must utilize a polling approach to establish communication between the site and the server wherein the gateway device polls an associated server during the temporary connection to determine if a message or data is desired to be sent from the server to the site. Since this communication can only occur while the temporary connection is open, the current communication platforms which utilize a polling approach have a latency problem. In other words, a message or data which is desired to be sent from the server to the site cannot be sent instantaneously, but rather must wait for the initiation of a polling from the gateway. Therefore, any messages or data which are sent from the server must necessarily encounter some form of a time delay, known in the art as latency, before being received at the site. This delay leads to an unsatisfactory user experience for a user who may ultimately receive or be impacted by the message or data sent to the site. In addition, the message or data received at the site may even be outdated by the time it is ultimately received at the site.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.